Exciting Times at Crest Coating – We’ve Just Revolutionized the Coating Process
It’s a very exciting time at Crest Coating HQ at the moment, as our new and improved coating system is now fully operational.
Moreover, it promises to be an exciting time for our customers too. Why? Because we’ve invested heavily in our most recent upgrades to ensure our production line comprises the newest, shiniest, most state-of-the-art technology. So, now we can promise our customers better quality products, faster turnaround times, and lower prices.
Sounds a bit too good to be true, doesn’t it? But we promise you, we’re for real. Let us explain to you how we did it.
What We Did Before
To understand the scale of the changes we’ve made, it helps to understand the journey your parts went on when they got loaded onto our old production line. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Pretreatment washer
- Dry off oven
- Powder booth
- Cure oven
- Cool down
- Unloading
There’s nothing innately wrong with this old-school system, and it works fine for parts that require only a powder topcoat. But, for customers wanting products with a primer and topcoat, it means unloading everything and reloading for a second round on the conveyor belt the following day once we’d cleaned the powder booth and switched out the primer for the topcoat.
If you think that sounds both time and labor-intensive, you’d be right. So, when it came time to replace and upgrade our equipment, we wondered if there might be a better way—a way to complete both the primer and topcoat applications in one hit. And, after much research and development, we found one!
How We Do It Now
Essentially, we’ve added two extra booths to our production line: a state-of-the-art infrared oven and an additional powder booth so that the primer and topcoat are applied in entirely different stations. The end-to-end process now looks like this:
- Pretreatment washer
- Dry off oven
- Primer booth
- Infra-red oven
- Topcoat booth
- Cure oven
- Cool down
- Unloading
It’s just two extra steps, but it allows us to be so much more dynamic and flexible, and ultimately provide a much higher quality of service to our valued customers. There’s some pretty neat internal benefits, too. But before we get to those, we need to nerd off a bit about just how awesome that infrared oven is.
Infra-Power Engaged!
This is one cool piece of technology. Well, actually, it’s not. It’s literally quite the opposite, as it gets crazy hot! But the heat is now so easy to control. The oven’s multiple modules allow us to regulate temperature over a broader heat spectrum than ever before. The result? We can coat a wider range of parts from thin gauge to heavy gauge with the highest quality standards available.
The Benefits for Customers and Our Team
The coolest brag for us is that, to the best of our knowledge, none of our competitors have anything that can match our amazing new technology, meaning Crest Coating is the only company that can offer the following benefits with complete confidence.
Lower Prices
Because of the dramatic reduction in time and labor, we’ve been able to significantly reduce our overheads. And those savings get passed directly back to our customers. Higher Quality Products
The ability to contain powder by having two separate booths for primer and topcoat is a game changer. That stuff can get everywhere! Just a couple of specs of the previous color can result in contamination and meddle with the finish of the final product. That’s now a problem we don’t need to worry about.
Faster Lead Times
Because parts only need to travel around the conveyor once rather than twice, we can complete orders much faster. We estimate the total time saved per week will be around 10-12 hours. That doesn’t just mean more efficient deliveries. It’s great news for existing clients who’d like to increase their order volume, and for new clients that we may not have had the capacity to service in the past.
In-House Improvements
The windows on our new booths are so much easier for our teams to work with. The improved ergonomic design means there’s no chance of suffering neck or back pain from bending through small access points. Plus, the better lighting set-up improves the team’s ability to focus on attention to detail without experiencing eye strain. And we’ve got a much cleaner shop floor thanks to the new dust collection system. It all results in a massive thumbs up from our staff.
Ready to give our new system a whirl? Call us today at (714) 635-7090 or fill out our contact form to learn more. Our team promises top-quality service and workmanship every time, and our helpful advisors are always on hand to discuss your unique needs and ensure the right coating solutions to meet them.